"We look at Dynamics AX as a solid platform for us to move the company forward, to streamline business practices and stay on top of changing industry-driven standards for product traceability and food safety"

Barbara Rodgers, Director of Information Technology, The Nunes Company

"We look at Dynamics AX as a solid platform for us to move the company forward..., to streamline business practices and stay on top of changing industry-driven standards for product traceability and food safety"

Barbara Rodgers, Director of Information Technology, The Nunes Company

sa.global has worked with Microsoft Dynamics 365 for many years, understands
the opportunities and pitfalls of ERP implementations, and helped
us see the best way to get through our implementation

Eric Reading,
Executive Vice President,
Chemonics

The new Microsoft Dynamics 365 is a native cloud-based application that was developed to run as a service on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform. This means that sa.global did not need to purchase or manage any hardware or network infrastructure, which helps to reduce IT overhead and expenses. And because the new cloud-based Dynamics 365 utilizes a cross-platform HTML5 web browser interface, the application is easily accessible by sa.global's distributed global workforce for key processes such as time and expense entry and approvals.

sa.global also leveraged Microsoft’s cloud-based Lifecycle Services (LCS) tool to assist with the deployment and management of Microsoft Dynamics 365. LCS is an Azure-based application lifecycle management suite that provides a number of valuable implementation, deployment and support tools. These tools help to deliver predictable, high-quality implementations of Dynamics 365.

Business Situation

sa.global had historically followed a de-centralized IT strategy, with many of its countries and regions being responsible for their local business applications. However, as sa.global continued to expand their global footprint, the volume of multinational client projects increased significantly. These multinational projects introduced a new level of complexity in terms of managing inter-company transfer pricing rules and billing relationships and other global project management and accounting functions.

In addition, as sa.global experienced rapid growth and demand for their services, it became imperative to leverage their global pool of resources. This required new levels of visibility into the capabilities and availability of their broader pool of resources.

“As our business continued to grow and evolve, it became more critical that we move toward an integrated global ERP platform”, explained Brian Lounds, Group CFO for sa.global. “We needed a common platform that could help our teams better collaborate, help us streamline key project and resource related processes, and improve visibility across our global business.”

The Solution

To address these challenges, sa.global selected the new Microsoft Dynamics 365 as their global ERP platform. Microsoft Dynamics 365 offers a Service Industries solution that is specifically designed to meet the needs of professional services organizations like sa.global, helping them to manage their projects, resources, finances, and clients all in a single web based application.

After participating in Microsoft’s early adopter (TAP) program, sa.global went “live” on the new Microsoft Dynamics 365 in January of 2016. Dynamics 365 now serves as the organization’s primary project management and accounting platform for hundreds of users across the US, EMEA, India, and Asia.

Up in the Cloud

The new Microsoft Dynamics 365 is a native cloud-based application that was developed to run as a service on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform. This means that sa.global did not need to purchase or manage any hardware or network infrastructure, which helps to reduce IT overhead and expenses. And because the new cloud-based Dynamics 365 utilizes a cross-platform HTML5 web browser interface, the application is easily accessible by sa.global's distributed global workforce for key processes such as time and expense entry and approvals.

sa.global also leveraged Microsoft’s cloud-based Lifecycle Services (LCS) tool to assist with the deployment and management of Microsoft Dynamics 365. LCS is an Azure-based application lifecycle management suite that provides a number of valuable implementation, deployment and support tools. These tools help to deliver predictable, high-quality implementations of Dynamics 365.

sa.global Project Timesheets Solution

The Benefits

Through the implementation of Microsoft Dynamics 365, sa.global has realized the following benefits:

Streamlined key project-related business processes such as time and expense management and billing.

Optimized resource planning and utilization through better visibility of their global resource pool.

Reduced IT costs by consolidating many disparate applications and systems onto a single cloud-based platform.

"The new Microsoft Dynamics 365 has really helped us improve our visibility across our global operations”, Lounds explained. “We now have much better controls in place throughout our global business, and have been able to standardize key processes around the world. In the end, this will help us drive efficiencies throughout our business, and empower our team to more effectively deliver our projects and to better serve our clients.”